Michael Savage has a long history of violent rhetoric

As reported by John Hamilton, a neighbor of alleged California highway shooter Byron Williams said Williams "would turn on Michael Savage." Like Glenn Beck, radio host Savage has a history of violent rhetoric.

Williams reportedly planned to target the ACLU, which Savage said "will kill us all if they're not stopped"

Williams allegedly wanted to "start a revolution" by "killing people of importance at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU." On July 18, according to a police investigation, Williams opened fire on California Highway Patrol officers who had stopped him on an Oakland highway for speeding and driving erratically. After being taken into custody, Williams reportedly told investigators that "his intention was to start a revolution by traveling to San Francisco and killing people of importance at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU."

Savage on the ACLU: "They will kill us all if they're not stopped." During a discussion with a caller about how the ACLU is supposedly "going after" "the police, the soldiers, the marines, and now the CIA," Savage proclaimed that "they will kill us all if they're not stopped." From his radio program:

CALLER: My comment was on the CIA, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the CIA and the FBI, and I think --

SAVAGE: And so do I. Without them -- without them we would have been dead a long time ago. The country would have been lost. Okay, we know that. I don't understand how anybody in America doesn't understand that.

CALLER: I think they're our last defense. I keep hoping every morning that we get up there's gonna be a news story that the CIA has uncovered this crooked, I mean just exposed the crooked government that we have.

SAVAGE: Well how about the CIA is going to expose going the ACLU for their foreign ties. Or how about the CIA has finally uncovered the relationship between Media Matters and foreign entities. Wouldn't those be wonderful headlines, if they were true?

CALLER: Well, I --

SAVAGE: Let me explain something. No organism whether it be a nation or a human being can survive if its immune system is compromised or destroyed. And by going after the white blood cells, as the ACLU does regularly -- meaning the police, the soldiers, the marines, and now the CIA -- what they are trying to do is in essence destroy our white blood cells, our internal defense mechanism. They will kill us all if they're not stopped.

And I don't know what it's gonna take for the people to finally rise up and say: "Enough is enough. I want to unmask the character who is running the ACLU. We want a thorough investigation of this man because he has a name. We want to know why he hates the CIA. We want to know why he hates the FBI. We want to know why he hates America and who he works for."

Wouldn't that be a good series of questions to begin with? [The Savage Nation, 8/24/09]

In the wake of Williams' attempted attack, Savage has continued to demonize the ACLU.

Savage asks if "people can take endless insults from the ACLU and the radical deviants in the left wing until something terrible happens." Responding to a federal judge's ruling that California's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, Savage said:

SAVAGE: But when you see the votes of Americans thrown out the window by a judge, do you think that's something that is good for America at a time like this? Do you think that this is going to bring people together, or make people crazier than they already are? Do you actually think that there aren't people ... who are not going to go crazy because of this? Do you actually think that people can take endless insults from the ACLU and the radical deviants in the left wing until something terrible happens in this country? The left does not know when to stop. The left will not stop until the country goes up in flames. Don't give them what they want. I'll repeat that: Don't give them what they want. They want insurrection so that their man in Havana, old Obama, can declare martial law and take away all of your rights altogether. [The Savage Nation, 8/04/10]

Savage's history of violent rhetoric

Savage: "We're going to have a revolution in this country. ... These people are pushing the wrong people around." Savage discussed multiculturalism and predicted, "This is not going to go on in this country much longer. We're going to have a revolution in this country if this keeps up. These people are pushing the wrong people around." Savage further said:

[T]he rage has reached a boil. If they keep pushing us around, and if we keep having these schmucks running for office catering to the multicultural people who are destroying the culture of this country ... Guaranteed. The people -- the white male in particular -- let me talk specifically. The white male in particular -- the one without connections, the one without money -- has nothing to lose, and you haven't seen him yet. You haven't seen him explode in this country, and he's still a majority, by the way. In case you don't know it. He is still the majority. No one speaks for him. Everyone craps on him. People use him for cannon fodder. And he has no voice whatsoever. He has nobody speaking for him.

So he goes to these extreme fighting events. Take a look at them, and you'll see what the white male is capable of. And you're going to find out that if you keep pushing this country around, you'll find out that there's an ugly side to the white male that has been suppressed for probably 30 years right now, but it really has never gone away.[The Savage Nation, 8/20/09]

Savage: "I'd hang every lawyer who went down to Guantanamo." While discussing the case of two University of South Florida students on trial for charges that they provided material aid to terrorists, Savage told a caller, "If I ran this country, I'd hang the lawyer. I would try her for aiding and abetting terrorism -- I'd hang her and I'd hang every lawyer who went down to Guantánamo to defend those murderers." Earlier in the same program, Savage said of the defendants and their attorney, whom he called "a shyster lawyer, a girl lawyer": "I would execute them and I'd execute the lawyer. How's that? I'd execute any lawyer who would do this to this country in a time like this -- I'd hang her. I'd hang her. I'd hang her for aiding and abetting terrorism. Don't tell me they're entitled to a rational defense, I'm so sick of this -- I could rip my desk and it's made of iron. I feel like Superman right now, I could take my hands and break my desk, that's how enraged I am today, I'm choked up with anger." [The Savage Nation, 6/18/08]

Savage on "new Mao" Obama: "Revolutions have very high tolls in blood. Just be very, very careful about where we go." During a discussion of how we have a "Communist revolution" in America led by "Barack Hussein Obama" -- who has supposedly surrounded himself with "Mao Zedong lovers" -- Savage compared Mao using the "power of the peasants" in China to Obama using the "peasants" in America to "motivate a Maoist revolution." Savage listed among American "peasants" the "thirty million illegal aliens," "those on welfare," "the uneducated" and "those who are full of hatred for those of us who work and have something." Later in the rant, Savage explained that "Maoism killed 60 million people. Marxism killed 90 million people in the last century. So revolutions have very high tolls in blood. Just be very, very careful about where we go." [The Savage Nation, 10/20/09]

Savage: "I almost feel as though Obama's trying to create a civil war in America for his own reasons." Savage said that "[p]eople are sick, they're frightened" and "they're physically breaking down and they're mentally breaking down" because of "this administration." He added that he "almost feel[s] as though Obama's trying to create a civil war in America for his own reasons." [The Savage Nation,6/18/10]

Savage: "Only vigilance and resistance to this baby dictator, Barack Hussein Obama, can prevent the Khmer Rouge from appearing in this country." Discussing the atrocities perpetrated in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge, Savage explained how Pol Pot was a "mild-mannered" professor like Obama. Savage added: "I would argue it can happen here. And I would argue that only vigilance, only vigilance and resistance to this baby dictator and his band of terrorists can prevent this from occurring here. I'll repeat it. Only vigilance and resistance to this baby dictator, Barack Hussein Obama, can prevent the Khmer Rouge from appearing in this country." [The Savage Nation,12/17/09]

"Democrat rat" is "going to do an Oklahoma City" or "a war" because they are "desperate right now." Savage said that "when you corner a rat, the rat gets vicious. And this Democrat rat is cornered right now, and it's going to get very vicious." He predicted that the government is "going to do an Oklahoma City" or "a war" because they are "desperate right now" and don't want to give up power. [The Savage Nation,8/12/09]

Savage: "[L]ikelihood is very high" that "martial law will be declared" after "equivalent of the Reichstag fire" occurs. Savage announced that "the likelihood is very high that the gang that has taken over this country" will "create" the "equivalent of the Reichstag fire" so that "martial law will be declared in this country." Savage added that he doesn't "know what they are going to use -- I don't know what crisis they are going to gin up -- but they are going to do something." [The Savage Nation,8/14/09]

Savage: "Radical left," including Obama, "dream[s]" of Maoist revolution with "death camps." Discussing the "tremendous machismo in America that is just under the surface of the sissified nation," as evidenced by "mixed martial arts," Savage claimed that the "true red-blooded American types have been thrown out of the -- out of the government." Savage asked if Obama and Democrats are "capable of hoodwinking the average American sufficient to bring about the Maoist revolution that they dream of, with death camps, ... arresting people for being patriotic, arresting people on suspicion of being anti-government. You want me to go down the list of what could happen under this group of left-wingers? Virtually anything that's happened in China or the ex-Soviet Union can happen here." [The Savage Nation, March 2009]

Savage: "The radical Left and the radical Muslims are natural blood brothers. ... They want to destroy the country." Discussing a story about "Muslim radicals who disrupted a speech by the Israeli ambassador at UC Irvine," Savage complained that they were being defended by CAIR and the Lawyers Guild, which supposedly has "a long tie to the Communist Party U.S.A." Savage added that "the radical Left and the radical Muslims are natural blood brothers. They have something in common. They all want to bring down America. They want to destroy the country." [The Savage Nation, 2/26/10]

Savage: "I fear that Obama will stir up a race war ... in order to seize absolute power." Discussing then-candidate Obama's potential election, Savage said that he "fear[s] that Obama will stir up a race war. You want to ask me what I fear? I think Obama will empower the racists in this country and stir up a race war in order to seize absolute power." [The Savage Nation, 10/8/08]

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